Berlin is a place where experimentation is all, where old orders are swept away and new forms are embraced. Having lived through numerous upheavals and been central to the passage of Western history throughout the last century, the art and music of the city is often abrasive, confrontational and cerebral – a reflection of the shifting realities of life and thought her citizens have experienced.
Whilst there’s a lot of amazing music to be discovered from pre 60s Berlin, particularly the operatic social blues composed by the legendary Kurt Weill, this piece is going to begin with the birth of krautrock- the wigged out prog psychedelia formulated in the Zodiak Free Arts Lab. The Zodiak was a club with two rooms, one completely black and one completely white, where musicians would meet, jam, fuck around with conventions, and as well formulating the krautrock template, lay down the foundations for abstract dance, electronica and drone.
Started in 1969 in an avant garde theatre the Zodiak became a meeting ground for deadly serious musicians and artists, as this hirsute footage testifies;
From the heads flooding to the venue a number of highly influential bands were formed, splintered and reformed- amongst them Ash Ra Temple, Agitation Free, Klaus Schulze, Cluster and Edgar Froese’s Tangerine Dream. Compared with their more song obsessed English contemporaries this middle class German wave embraced the wilful, the obscure and the experimental. Froese believed “In the absurd often lies what is artistically possible”. The first Tangerine Dream LP was constructed from tape loop collages that were exercises in dark surrealism;
This layered and distorted non-song aesthetic can also be heard on Ash Ra’s megalithic Amboss, the opening track (and side) of their debut;
As the 60s toppled into the 70s synthesiser and sequencing technology surged forward. Tangerine Dream seized on this as essential to their sound, and international success followed. John Peel named their ‘73 LP Atem album of the year. The title tracks’ walls of echoing clarion and militant drum thunder can be heard reverberating in dance music from dubstep to techno to this day;
Cluster meanwhile produced a fuzzy motorik sound something like Kraftwerk coming in from the cold;
And Agitation Free experimented with ethnologic samples (principally from Egypt) and heavy drones;
Tangerine Dream rose to become the most internationally prominent of all the Zodiak formed groups, coming to the attention of fans worldwide with their prolific film scoring and reaching what has to be viewed as an all time career high in 1985. Yes nostalgia fans, they recording the theme tune to the thinking mans Knight Rider; StreetHawk;
See ya later Hasselhoff…
At this point it seems fair to point out that all of the acts discussed so far have been West German. Before the wall came down the GDR was very keen to promote traditional folk, and very wary of anything that could be deemed to originate from the west, even jazz – a music of ‘oppressed peoples’ whom the communist regime publicly supported, was seen as corrupting in its rhythms and conventions. Eventually the prog explosion of West Berlin was mirrored, albeit more conventionally by long lived rockers Die Puhdys. There first single, recorded for the state owned Amiga label was a five minute heavy riffing epic, worthy of a place on any Sabbath album;
As with the rest of Europe, the psychedelic excesses of the 70s left Berlin’s scene bloated and distant from ordinary kids, unable and unwilling to fork out five grand on a keyboard. 10 minute tracks, 15 minute solos and workshy haircuts had taken their toll. The time was right for a particularly Germanic take on punk.
Step up Nina Hagen.
Nina Hagen is considered the Godmother of what came to be known as Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave). Hagen was highly theatrical, somewhat operatic, and quite able to veer between the amazing and the cack. There’s no denying she’s bonkers, occasionally unlistenably so, but at her best she bought venomous fury and striking visuals to a range of DIY styles. You can get a fair indication of her nuttiness on African Reggae, a track where she spits, hisses and yodels some utter bollocks over some punky reggae grooves. It’s pretty good, although possibly not a big one for the purists-
For a truly amazing balls out headkicking Hagen number, check out this live performance of Who Killed Rudi. It’s like being bludgeoned to death by a fraggle impersonating Worzel Gummidge. All together now- “SOS-! WE GO WEST !”
Hagen cleared the way for a rash of NDW bands, coming at the DIY sound from a host of different directions, only really cohesive in that they all sang in German. Notable are NeonBabies, the project of two sisters Inga and Annette Humpe, a kind of Berlin based, musically competent X Ray Spex;
The sisters went on to form the fairly successful Ideal, who like most NDW bands remain pretty much unknown outside of Germany, largely because they sang in their own language.
The frantic attack of the early punk soon metamorphasized into the grinding monochromes of cold wave and industrial. The seminal Einsturzende Neubauten were in many ways a return to the experimentalism of the Zodiak. There early 80s work was a harsh scrape of drones, metal banging percussion and the hoarse throated vocals of Blixa Bargeld, later of The Birthday Party.
By the time they’d recorded ‘85s Halber Mensch (Half Man) the band were brewing up a mix of queasy witch chants;
And horror core industrial, that comes across as a soundtrack for cracked out elves getting hyped up for a gang rape;
Sticking to slightly more recognisable structures (only slightly mind) were the mighty Malaria! An all female coldwave outfit, Malaria! Sang in English and spent plenty of time in New York, yet still remain curiously obscure. They combined the aggressive melodies of industrial with doom-pop synth hooks, pulsing drum machines and gothic vocals-
There’s some great Berlin live footage of them here grinding out Trash Me— one of the comments points out that Iain Duncan Smith appears at 1:47. Personally I’d say it looks more William Hague – the metronomic proto house beat is quite incredible;
A world away from this iron and gloom, come 1985 the musical landscape was shifting, bracing itself for the monumental changes to come– a young DJ who had just moved to Berlin was bringing out his first track, a weird happy go lucky piece of new beat entitled ‘17 (This Is Not A Boris Becker Song)’;
The DJ was Westbam- more on him in a bit…
Meanwhile, over in the GDR a small group of artists were still feeding off the Tangerine Dream legacy. Munich label Permanent Vacation has recently collected a series of cosmic soundscapes produced in the last days before the fall of the iron curtain, and they make for quite startling listening. Reinhard Lakomy’s ‘Es Wachst Das Gras Nicht Uber Alles’ is ten minutes of skittering arpeggios, innovative and insistent;
Julius Krebs’ ‘Intro’ has all the campness of arch italo and is good squelching space age fun
These cosmic disco lullabies chimed with the movement gathering pace on the other side of the wall. Taking the machine beats of industrial and pairing them with visions of the future rather than the nihilism of the present, house – and more specifically techno – was about to take hold of Berlin and, as the wall between East and West was smashed to rubble, reshape the the city’s musical focus forever.
In November 1989 an ecstatic crowd of young people climbed on the Berlin Wall and began dismantling it. Coincidentally – or not – four months earlier the very same city had held the first “Love Parade”, a festival of electronic dance music attended by one million people.
The first ‘house’ parties in Berlin had been organized three years prior to this by local West Berlin dance entrepreneurs in Kreuzberg and Schöneberg. In a transitory period of legal uncertainty in the aftermath of the collapse of the GDR it was possible to stage illegal parties in the tradition of the British acid house raves of 1988-89. DJ Westbam and Dr. Motte, co-founders of the Loveparade, put on parties in the illegal club ‘UFO’. In UFO Chicago and Detroit foundation tunes could be heard spun next new beat, industrial, and the duo’s own producuctions that sampled heavy early house bangers, such as this cut Disco Deutschland;
The fashion and hedonism on show at the first Love Parade matched anything England was producing in its own summer of love, as seen in these clips narrated by Motte-
David Robb discusses the explosion of dance music in Berlin in his work Techno in Germany
“If in Britain the excesses of rave had emerged, as a liberating reaction to strait-jacketing social pressures of right-wing Thatcherism in the late 80s, in Germany techno celebrated the liberation from ideology in general — in the West from the hegemonic liberal values of the parental 1968 generation, and in the East, from the ideological utopias of the SED.”
Techno in Germany: Its Musical Origins and Cultural Relevance, David Robb
Come 1991 financial problems had forced UFO to close. The floodgates however had been well and truly kicked open, with techno dispersing into a number of venues round the East and West sides of the city, most notably in the trio of Der Bunker – “a dark and subterranean hinterland”, Planet (later renamed E-Werk) – “a disused electrical car park” – and Tresor.
Tresor, held in the bowels of a converted shopping mall vault became the spiritual home of German techno. Both the club itself, always full and always pounding, and the label, releasing countless classics, defined the shape of techno music round the globe. The Detroit – Berlin axis was firmly established upon Tresor’s releasing the seminal ‘Tresor II – Berlin & Detroit – A Techno Alliance’. Featuring Jeff Mills, 3 Phase, Eddie Flashin Fowlkes, DJ Hell & Undergound Resistance, the album concreted the ties between cities, and shortly after led to both Mills and Blake Baxter setting up residence in Berlin. It’s well worth picking up the album on discogs,
A selection from the album:
The amazing Acid Musik from DJ Hell:
the quite good: 3 PHASE vs. PULSE – Das Rennen
from the Detroit side of things – the amazing Underground Resistance’s Jupiter Jazz, daddy of a thousand hardcore tracks -
And where Berlin met Detroit head-on: Die Kosmischen Kuriere by. 3MB (AKA swiss born but Berlin resident & legend Thomas Fehlmann and mastering & cutting engineer @ Berliner Dubplates & Mastering Moritz Von Oswald AKA one half of Maurizio) Featuring Magic Juan Atkins
If you want to know more (and I know you do- )
Check the excellent historical documentary on Tresor:
“The whole underground resistance… that was the meaning of Tresor”
Jeff Mills – Yes I Can
While Tresor led the charge, other labels and clubs were flourishing. Studio !K7 started in 1985 as an outlet for video promos to accompany the fledgling club music of the city. This metamorphosed in the 90s into the X-Mix series – a ground breaking mix of digital visuals and techno soundtracks. Paul Van Dyk had the honour of releasing the first X-Mix;
Followed into the 90′s by luminaries such as DJ Hell, and a personal favourite from back in the day, the big jock Dave Clarke, with a game changing electro set featuring Aux 88, Dopplereffekt, I-F and more DJ Hell;
Still in the 90′s, a couple of names started getting involved in the scene, names who will pop up again in a few years – firstly Ellen Allien started DJ’ing in Tresor, playing techno to the sweating masses. Secondly, the quirky pop label Kitty Yo sprang into existence. Remember those names.
The naked love of techno attracted party goers, noshers, crusties and maniacs from all over the world. English squat outcasts Spiral Tribe briefly formed an integral part of Berlin’s illegal party scene. Spiral Tribe’s loud and hard ‘terra-technic’ music lay ‘somewhere between gabba and acid house’. Fleeing the Criminal Justice Act in the UK, they found a temporary home at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin – and although they quickly had their 15,000 db system impounded by the authorities they helped usher in the next wave of Berliner sound – Digital Hardcore.
Spewed out by disaffected bastards punks, Digital Hardcore was a label, a noise and a way of life. Spearheaded by Alec Empire and represented by his band, the gloriously named Atari Teenage Riot, Digtal Hardcore was, and is a fusion of politics, anger, thrash, drum n bass and techno. In keeping with Berlin’s experimental history, the early releases from the label embraced the jungle sounds kicking out of the UK and hurled screaming vocals, cartoon sound effects and rave mardiness over the top. There’s literally nothing on youtube documenting the label – I guess they weren’t into videos, but check out their homepage for mental soundbites;
This assault from the hardcore momentarily split the Berlin dance scene. On one side you had the melody and tripped outed-ness of Tangerine Dream, and the other you had the harsh shapes of Einsturdze Neubaten. !K7 were signing Kruder & Dorfmeister and releasing globally successful and critically acclaimed chill out compilations (listening back to their verson of Bug Powder Dust is pretty much like loving Joy Orbison in 2010)
On the other hand you had Atari Teenage Riot filming videos that’d get banned and thrashing like there was a financial crisis round the corner. Who would have thought it.
This fissure could only last so long- at the turn of the century Berlin malcontents were formulating a new scene, or at least a revision of the old scenes…
When the new millenium hit everyone everywhere was sick of what came before. We all looked for a new direction, and as is often the case looking for a new way meant taking one step back to go two forwards. In Berlin and New York Electroclash sprang up, a mixture of punk, new wave and new romantic aesthetics with modern electronic dance, fronted by labels such as the previously mentioned Kitty Yo, home of Canadian outcast Peaches;
And the also mentioned Ellen Alien with B Pitch and their colder vibe;
Around these staple labels young turks such as Shitkatapult lurched up. Run by the producer Apparat (more on him soon) the label hit success with tracks such as T. Raumschmiere’s ‘Monster Truck Driver’, a combo of techno groove and punk agg;
Whilst this scene was quickly mocked in the main stream media for its excessive theatrical performers and fetish for style over content, it produced several tracks that stand the test of time today and revitalised a somewhat flagging dance scene in both Europe and the US. Perhaps as a response to the sniping over outlandish costumes and playground lewd lyrics, the Berlin sound started to become more serious, stripping away excessive vocals and sounds, BPitch was again at the fore, with massive releases such as ‘Washing Up’
and the first, limited, 12” from Modeselektor – unfortunately this ones not available on youtube so you kids will have to do some digging.
There’s some good early (German language) footage of Modeselektor pissing off the police here though;
The seeds sown in the early noughties, with risk taking producers on BPitch and ShitKatapult vibeing off each other’s sounds and hunting for new ways of pushing things forward created an atmosphere of collaboration, leading to such popular team ups as Radiohead tour partners and Bloc main stage acts Moderat;
A project that to a certain extent has calmed the less palatable edges of both acts earlier glitching rave madness and allowing melody a chance to flourish, with greater commercial success following.
We’re out of space to even go into the rise of minimal, suffice to say that it has been in keeping with both the Berlin’s infatuation with experimental, abstract sound, and her love of knowingly intellectual and conceptual music. As a genre it has been detailed ceaselessly on the net by it’s jealous custodians, so there’s plenty of places to look for the low down on the modern day sound of silence.
What will follow in the next decade is hard to predict, although this writer would hazard a guess that the current privileging of song over chaos will only last for so much longer in a city renowned for invention.
– words by Ran$om Note‘s Ian Mcquaid
Originally published on Bloc Weekend’s website a few weeks back.
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